Thunder Mountain Ski Resort, Chicago, Illinois.

Thunder Mountain Ski Resort was the only Chicago ski resort. Its brief life at 2600 North Narragansett Avenue, in the Belmont-Cragin Community, with the Brickyard, Cragin, and Hanson Park neighborhoods, was as short as the longest run down its 285-foot slope.

Located at what was the Brickyard Shopping Mall on the Northwest Side, the grandly named Thunder Mountain was open for one season, the 1967-68 winter. It boasted the longest vertical drop of any place within 200 miles, according to a 1967 Tribune story. The feat was accomplished because skiers started at the top of the man-made hill and ended at the bottom of the clay pit excavated over the decades by the Carey Brick Works. Parking was available for 2,000 cars, and was the only Chicago resort serviced by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

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The highest natural point within the city limits is in the Beverly neighborhood at 104th and Leavitt Street at 672 feet. In pioneer days, this hill was called Blue Island, so named because, at a distance, it looked like an island set in a trackless prairie sea.

According to geologists, ages ago this ridge was a real island in Lake Michigan. It was made up almost entirely of alluvial drift and lake deposit, probably left by a melting ice cap during the glacial period. The island rose 10 to 35 feet above the surrounding waters.Eventually the shoreline of Lake Michigan receded to its present location and left a six-mile-long oval ridge in the midst of a low marshy plain.

The Careys launched "Thunder Enterprises" and divided the landscape into three different runs for beginners, intermediates, and experts, all serving the 55 skiable acres by tow ropes.

Robert Carey, the owner of the brickyard on which the resort is located, is also managing director of Hawthorne Race Track in Cicero and is head of Thunder Enterprises, Ltd. 

The former brick kiln was converted into an A-shaped chalet. There were too many fireplaces in the chalet, and several had been bricked up. The chalet at the top offered a snack bar and a lounge, a complete rental shop, restrooms, etc. Two certified ski instructors were hired. Five compressors were used to feed 15 snow guns to provide machine-made snow for the area.

Thunder Mountain was lit for night skiing. The original operating schedule listed hours from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., seven days a week. Lift charges were $3.50 during the week and $4.00 on Saturday and Sunday. Parking costs $1.00.

Thunder Mountain view looking northeast toward Steinmetz High School.

Carey had big plans for the place, envisioning a five-story chalet on the Diversey Avenue side, toboggan runs, an indoor swimming pool and a hotel. Ski lifts also were planned. 

The Tribune reported that the family had enjoyed the slopes for a few years before deciding to open it to the public. But a March 1968 story blamed a horrible lack of snow and "some growing pains" for a first season that was "hardly a smashing success." 

The ski run never reopened, though the Tribune reported in 1971 that abandoned ski lift poles at the site were used by ham radio operators for a simulated emergency exercise.

Thunder Mountain view looking southeast toward downtown Chicago.

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Carey Brick Works made a fortune for political heavyweight and one-time mayoral candidate Thomas Carey and his family. It was part of a Chicago-area industry producing 300 million Chicago common and street paver bricks yearly. The company was fined for using those clay pits as illegal dumps, ending a protracted battle with neighbors in 1950. Carey Brick Works continued in operation during the ski resort era and beyond. They were the last place in Chicago to make these bricks. The kilns needed to produce these didn't meet modern environmental standards, and Carey closed in 1980. Today, whenever a Chicago brick building is torn down, companies are brought in to salvage the bricks and re-use or sell them.

Oak Park resident Deb Pastors, who grew up near the site, has told people about the ski run for years. She wrote, "People look at me like I have horns growing from my head. The whole brickyard story would be pretty interesting, but the story about the ski hill would be fascinating."

The original Brickyard Mall opened in 1978, and the site's brief fling as a ski resort faded into history. By 2003, the mall was nearly 80 percent vacant, so the city council approved a one-hundred million dollar redevelopment plan to demolish the structure. Opening in its place was a strip mall with Target and Lowe's, along with a relocated Jewel supermarket.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Lunchtime Theater - A Journey Through the Geologic History of Illinois in 14 Chapters.

THE DIGITAL RESEARCH LIBRARY OF ILLINOIS HISTORY JOURNAL™ PRESENTS

THE LUNCHTIME THEATER.

A Journey Through the Geologic History of Illinois in 14 Chapters.

Learn the history of Illinois as it changes from ancient tropical seas to towering swamps to a frozen Ice Age landscape.

Chapter 1 - The Ocean of Illinois

Chapter 2 - Early Ocean Life

Chapter 3 - Plate Tectonics

Chapter 4 - Geologic Materials

Chapter 5 - The Great Delta

Chapter 6 - Where Does Coal Come From

Chapter 7 - Geologic Layers of Illinois

Chapter 8 - Were Dinosaurs in Illinois

Chapter 9 - Ancient Rivers and Glaciers

Chapter 10 - The Illinois Glacier

Chapter 11 - The Wisconsin Glacier

Chapter 12 - Artifacts from the Illinois Ice Age

Chapter 13 - Impacts of Glacial Landforms

Chapter 14 - Warmer Climate Prairie Modern Illinois

Eldorado Illinois' Founding History.

The surveyor was Martin D. Gillett, and the plat was made on May 24, 1858 (It is in Section 21, Township 8, Range 7, East of the third principal meridian). Elderedo, which now is spelled Eldorado, was named for its founders - Judge Samuel Elder, his son, William Elder, his grandson, Francis Marion Elder, and a neighbor, William Reed. 

The Interurban Train of Southern Illinois Railway and
Power Company Heading out from Eldorado to Carrier Mills

The post office was established on December 8, 1858, and Nathaniel Bramlet was the first postmaster. Early Elderedo had only three streets laid out. State Road became State Street, Walnut Street, and West Street. The business houses were on State and Walnut Streets. The first businesses in Eldorado were started just before and in the Civil War period. Hiram Brown had the first dry-goods store on State Street. Tom Vaughn later built a general store, as did Cox and Elder, all on State Street. 

John H. Scott, a farmer, opened a general store in Eldorado after his return from war service. Scott also, with four others, organized a company and drilled the first oil well in the county. From 1896 to 1906, John H. Scott engaged in the business of selling buggies and light vehicles. 

The first general stores in Eldorado were owned by Nathaniel Bramlett and N. Webber. Each of these stores was started before the Civil War. In 1872, Choisser Bros. operated a livery stable and also ran a hack daily to Benton and return. Womack Bros sold boots and shoes, hats, caps, family groceries, and a general line usually sold in such stores. The Eldorado Grange established a store in 1879, where they sold dry goods, notions, hats, caps, boots and shoes, trace lines, hardware, check lines, and farm implements.

In 1865, Doctor John F. Latham entered into a partnership with his brother, S. C. Latham, in the drug business under the firm name of Latham Bros. and advertised, "we will respectfully inform the citizens of Eldorado and vicinity that we will constantly keep on hand a full stock of articles in the line of business which we will sell as cheap as any other druggist in southern Illinois." Cummins & Vaughn opened a "family" grocery store there in 1872.

Major William Elder built the first hotel. It furnished lodging for those who were employed building the railroads through the village. 

The original village was incorporated in 1870 with the following board of trustees: William Elder, president; James S. Neal, W. C. Wiedemann, J. N. Elder, and G. L. Eubanks, members. 

A. Ledvina was a carpenter, joiner, undertaker, manufacturer and dealer of furniture. In 1887, Eldorado boasted two drug stores, four dry goods stores, five groceries, one clothing store, one hardware store, one stove and tin-ware shop, one harness shop, one jeweler, one foundry and machine shop, two sawmills, two millinery stores, two livery stables, three hotels, one lumber yard, and one spoke factory.

The most extensive business interests in Eldorado were those of the Burnetts. C. P. Burnett began a mercantile firm in 1871 with his brother-in-law under the name of Burnett & Musgrave. This firm continued until 1885 when Burnett opened his own general store. In 1889, he organized the firm of C. P. Burnett & Sons, taking with him his sons, C. H., L. E., R. E., and C. P. In 1903, after the death of the elder Burnett, the business was incorporated and continued by the sons. The general merchandise store was divided into separate stores selling clothing, hardware, and groceries. It was in this business that the elder Burnett started the first bank; It was started by Burnett accepting sums of money from his customers merely for safe keeping for which he paid no interest. Out of this practice evolved a private bank which later was granted a charter as a state bank. Burnett owned large holdings in land and was interested in many other enterprises in and around Eldorado.

This settlement, by 1896, could boast of exceptional railroad facilities - The Illinois Central, The Louisville and Nashville, and The Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati and St. Louis. Like several other villages, when the railroad company placed the name on the station, the name was spelled Eldorado instead of 'Elderedo', and it has been known by that name since that time. East Eldorado begins at First Street and was added after the original village was platted. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.